Sidney’s POV-

I made my way down to the kitchen to get some breakfast. I found Devon sitting at the breakfast bar with a large glass of milk, a bowl of cereal starring off into space.

“Well, you look better this morning.” I tell her. She snapped out of her daze, smiled at me and nodded with her mouth full. “Slept well?” I asked her.

“Like a baby.” I heard coming from behind me. Shane came down and laughed at my look of annoyance.

“Yeah, sure. Nothing ever keeps you awake at night, does it?” I say sarcastically to him and look over at Devon who was looking at Shane and then back at me.

“You’d be surprised.” He tells me. “You ladies are looking lovely this morning. What’s on the agenda for today? Watching your boyfriend Tony bench press his own weight?” I filled with rage, stomped my foot and realized that Devon was laughing out loud at dear brother’s comment.

“You seriously need to get a life.” I tell him as I stomp my way out of the kitchen to the living-room. I lost my appetite.

“Devon, aren’t you coming?” I yell out.

Shane’s POV-

“Be right there!” Devon called out to my sister. I just love getting under her skin like that. After all, what are big brothers for? “You’re evil.” She tells me and I chuckle.

“You have no idea.” I wink at her and she shakes her head at me. “By the way, how did you sleep?” I found myself asking her.

“Like a baby.” She high-jacked my line, patted the top of my hand that rested on the counter and got up to stick her empty cereal bowl and glass in the dishwasher. “By the way, I couldn’t help but notice the photography equipment you have lying around your room.” She tells me. “You’ll have to show me some of your work some time.”

“Better yet, maybe you can help me with one of my projects.” I tell her.

“Sure.” She said as she turned to walk to the living-room. “Can’t wait to hear all about it.”

Devon’s POV-

“Hear about what?” I hear Sidney ask with her nose in one of her textbooks.

“It’s nothing. Shane wants me to help him out with one of his photography projects.” I tell her. It didn’t take much to get her attention after that. Sidney’s head snapped up and she looked at me suspiciously with those large blue eyes of hers.

“Why would you do that?” She asked me and then I saw a light in her eyes. “Does this have something to do with why, this morning, you were thanking him for last night?” My jaw dropped. Please God! Please have the wrong idea!

“I, uh…” I started.

“Let me know if you need more help with your Chem studies.” Shane walked passed us and headed for the front door.

“Where are you going?” Sidney asked him.

“Out.” He answers. “I’ll be back in about an hour or so.” I watched him leave as I hear Sidney’s phone ring. She perked as soon as she saw the caller ID.

“It’s Tony!” She squealed and I couldn’t help but chuckle sarcastically at her excitement. It’s a good thing Shane walked into Sid’s and my conversation when he did or else, I’m sure Sidney would have called me out on a lie. I was never able to lie to her which is why I was baffled that I was able to keep what had happened between my father and I hidden from her. Then again, it was a serious subject. I did feel bad keeping this from her, especially now that her brother knew what happened to me.

Half an hour later, Sidney and I were on our way out the door with Tony waiting for us in the driveway. Shane was back from whatever he left for earlier.

“Where are you off to?” He asked us.

“I’m heading home and Sid and Tony are going to the library to study.” I tell him. A look of concern flashed through his eyes.

“I can give you a lift myself if you’d like.” Sidney looked over at him with a questioning look on her face. “I can tell you about my project and then drop you off afterwards.”

“Couldn’t you find someone else?” Sidney asked him and I couldn’t help but laugh when he stuck his tongue out at her. “Are you coming?” She turned to me. I shook my head.

“Nah. You two go ahead. You’d be going in two different directions anyway.” I tell her. She shrugged her shoulders, jumped into Tony’s TJ Jeep.

“Suite yourself. I’ll talk to you tonight.” She tells me as Tony started to back away. I turned to find a smiling Shane. Who’s he smiling at? I couldn’t help but smack him lightly on the arm as I turned and headed back toward the house.

“Come on and show me why I should help you out with your latest project.” I tell him.

Shane’s POV-

I wasn’t completely expecting for Devon to stay behind but I figured that I’d take the time to show her my work and then leave it up to her to decide if she wanted to help me out. I sat at my desk watching her as she sifted through photograph after photograph from the folder I handed her. I could pull my gaze away from her face as I saw a multitude of emotion come across. Some were photos from an architecture stand-point, others were purely artistic in nature and then my still-life’s seemed to have been her favourites.

“These are beautiful.” She repeated for the umpteenth time as she leafed through the last of the prints. She came up on one that I had put in the folder that morning. Her hand clapped her chest and she looked up at me.

“When did you take this?” She asked and showed me the print. It was one of her, that I had taken yesterday as she sat by the pool, deep in thought, with all the worries of life strewn across her face. She looked so innocently angelic, I found myself reaching for my camera, forgetting my own etiquette which was to ask my subject if they minded that I go “shutter-bug” on them.

“Yesterday, before the guys showed up. You looked so consumed in thought, like you had the weight of the world on your shoulders, I couldn’t help myself.” I tell her slightly embarrassed. The smile that crossed her lips was the largest and brightest that I had seen since my arrival.

“A picture does tell a story of a thousand words, doesn’t it?” She states. I nod. “So, what’s this project you’re working on?” She asks me. I found myself blushing because I had only decided that I needed Devon as my subject, this morning.

“It’s about all things that make a woman beautiful and my interpretation of it.” I explained to her. She blushed.

“And you picked me as your subject why?” She asked me, while studying my face.

“Because of yesterday’s portrait. You struck a chord with me so I figured I’d ask you if you were up for it.” I explained. “I can always…”

“I’ll do it.” She tells me smiling. I got up, took the folder from her hands and set it on my desk and gave her a quick hug. She flinched slightly and then relaxed. “So when do we start?” She asks me as we headed downstairs.

“As soon as we seal the deal over a batch of your home-made cookies. Please tell me you still make those oatmeal coconut things?” I tell her with puppy dog eyes. She laughed and punched me in the arm. I feigned being hurt and rubbed my arm as I chuckled.

“Fine.” She said. “Bring your camera. I have a feeling that you’ll be in need of it what with me doing all sort of womanly things and all.” I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Devon’s POV-

So I stood there, in the kitchen with Shane who was helping me pull the ingredients out for my cookies. I proceeded with dumping each measured thing into the bowl. As Shane came back with the eggs, he managed to turn around and somehow knocked the aluminium bowl full of flour over the floor.

“Damn!” He said as I stood there, coughing through the cloud of flour, laughing at his mishap which apparently neither of us escaped the wrath of and we were wearing most of it.

“Just when I thought I couldn’t look paler.” I joked and threw in a chuckle for good measure. Shane’s hand flew to his mouth as he took in my appearance and began laughing hysterically along with me. Anyone who’s dropped flour before knows that it literally coats everything ten times its distance so of course, we had some everywhere. “What’s so funny?” I asked him as I wiped my right hand on his left cheek, leaving a nice mark of dry cookie ingredients on him.

“Come here. You’ve got something on your face.” He said as he attacked me with a tea towel. I started laughing and turned on my heels to run around the breakfast bar so I could get away from him. I was too slow; he was too quick and as he grabbed hold of my waist to tickle me, our feet gave way beneath us as we slipped and ended up back where we started but on the floor. I lay there, on my back, laughing with tears streaming down my face. It had been a while since I had laughed that much. I turned my head to look over at Shane who lay beside me and had managed to regain control of his fit of giggles. He was smiling at me, from his side, with such an amazing smile that melted my heart and then I felt him lean slightly over me and give me the sweetest kiss on the lips. I sucked in a breath and held it. What was that? I reached up and touched my lips with my two forefingers as he looked at me, trying to gauge what I would do, what I would say next. I smiled behind my fingers and did the only thing my body told me to do which was to return that kiss of his back to him with its equal heat and tingling factor. Apparently, it must have got him hot because when we pulled away, his face was flush, his breath was laboured and his eyes almost looked pained to have this moment end. I was glad that I wasn’t the only one that didn’t want this, whatever this was, to stop. I sat up first and looked behind me as Shane decided to lay back down on to his back.

“We’ve got to clean this mess before anyone sees this.” I tell him as I continue to get to my feet. I stood over him with one foot on either side of his body and my hands extended to him so I could help him up. “Come…” And the wind was knocked out of me as I felt myself pulled down on top of him.

“Look at you, falling all over me.” He says with a cocky grin causing me to laugh and cross my arms over his chest, keeping our faces and lips at a safe distance from each other. I never thought about his hands at this point. In that moment, I thought about what he could possibly do to me in this position and I blushed. “What kind of naughty thoughts are you thinking of?” He asked me. I got up, off of him, walked a few steps back and looked down at him.

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” I tell him as he finally gets to his feet beside me.

“Really? Well, I’m sure I can find a way to make you talk.” He tells me and laughs when he sees me blush again. He walked up to me and gave me a quick kiss on the head as he went to the drawer beside the sink and pulled out a few rags. “Let’s get this cleaned up, shall we?”

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